Birthday Hate
by chasingafterstarlight
Summary: Then I lowered my voice a little bit. "Look, you're never to repeat this to anyone, because I am not going soft, but why are you guys doing this for me? I thought you thought I was like, horrible or something." "You are," Andre said with a shrug. "But you're still our friend and we want you to be happy." / Jade really hates birthdays. Hints of Jade/Beck.


**Birthday Hate  
**mainly friendship, slight Beck/Jade

My watch beeped. _Midnight._

Normally I wouldn't have been bothered, but I figured since it was my birthday, I had to act all excited. _As if_. I logged onto my Slap page, then debated whether or not to post an update. Was it worth it? Most likely Vega would reply with some cheesy comment, as would Cat, and Shapiro in all of his awkwardness would post an equally awkward 'Happy birthday!'. Nice guy Andre would leave me a birthday wish. But the one person who I craved a birthday greeting from probably wouldn't even remember. After all, he hadn't even remembered when we were dating, what was I expecting now?

And I didn't want to make him feel guilty. If he wasn't going to wish me a happy birthday on his own, then so be it. I didn't need him.

With a frown, I pressed 'log out'. It was doubtful that anyone would remember, but if they did, I wanted them to remember on their own.

Picking up my phone, I saw that I had one text. A small smile made its way onto my face.

_Pun of the day! 'This is a lengthy article on Japanese Sword Fighters but I can Samurais it for you.'_

I had to smile at that, but then I frowned – nobody had sent me any birthday messages yet? I mean, it was 12:10 AM! I'd been seventeen for 10 minutes already.

Maybe I was right. Maybe no one would remember. Maybe no one would even care.

Switching off my lamp, I snuggled up in my covers and drifted off to sleep, slowly accepting the fact that I was doomed to a life of loneliness and despair.

(Okay, maybe I was being a bit dramatic. But in my defense, I _am_ an actress.)

/

I woke up in the morning to nothing, literally nothing. No messages, not on TheSlap or my phone, no birthday breakfast like I'm certain Vega would have had if it was _her _birthday. Instead, I threw on my clothes and combat boots, ate some children, and then slipped out the door. (Kidding, I ate Cocoa Puffs. How hardcore is that?)

Then I went up to my room and sat on my bed. It took me a moment to realize that I had nowhere to go, so I kicked my boots off and went back to sleep, just like that. No one would call me or text me, I figured, but I put my phone on ringer anyway. Just in case or whatever.

When I woke up, though, I wasn't in my bedroom anymore.

"What the actual heck?" I muttered, shooting up immediately. And then everyone in the room like, _screamed_ happy birthday at me. (And okay, so there were only 5 other people, but _still_. Someone was going to die.)

"Did you actually think we'd forget?" Tori asked with a teasing smile.

"I'd hoped," I griped, rubbing my eyes. "What made you think it was a good idea to move me down here _while I was asleep?_"

"It's not our fault that you could practically sleep through World War III," Beck retorted, a small, satisfied smile on his stupid face. I wanted to punch him about then, but then I realized that he was _actually here_, celebrating my birthday, even though we'd broken up, and all murderous thoughts were gone. Maybe he wasn't _so _bad.

I sighed. "So what even are you guys doing here?"

"Brush your hair and put on your shoes, cause we're going out," Tori crowed, a huge smile on her face. "This is going to be your best birthday yet!"

"And why do you care, Vega?" I inquired, standing up and pulling on my combat boots.

"Well," Cat chirped, "we noticed you've been sad a lot lately, and we don't like when you're sad."

Opting not to pin all of the blame on Beck (though, really, it was mainly his fault), I quickly brushed my hair and then rejoined the group. "So where exactly are we going? I hope it's not someplace I _hate_."

"Well, we're going out to lunch first," Andre informed me. "And, um…"

"We figured we'd buy you a new pair of scissors and then dinner," Tori said with a smile. "I mean, we thought you'd like that better than an actual party."

I tried to stop the smile from tugging at the edges of my lips. "Oh. Well, thanks."

/

In previous years, Beck had taken me out for dinner on my birthday, just the two of us. It had been rather nice, fairly relaxing, and definitely romantic, despite our usual constant fighting. This year's was definitely different, and I had to admit that I did miss it – not to mention _him, _in all his goofiness and idiocy – but this wasn't so bad either.

It was kind of like at lunch, but everyone seemed to be making a conscious effort not to get on my nerves. Beck turned down the waitress when she tried to make a move on him, much to my surprise. Robbie had left Rex at home, thankfully. Even Tori seemed to be making an effort to be less… irritating and girly.

And in return, I was _trying _– probably not succeeding, but still I did try – to be less, I don't know, bitter. Shapiro, of course, took the first opportunity he could to comment on this. "This is, um, actually fun. You seem different, Jade."

Then of course Beck the idiot had to jump in. "Jade's always nice on her birthday. It's like, a once-a-year thing."

Seething, I stabbed my chicken. "I hate birthdays."

"We know," everyone chimed in.

I was a bit angry because, you know, I didn't think it was Beck's place to go blabbing about all our relationship secrets (anything I did private was _not_ their business). So I shot him a glare to let him know how displeased I was with him. He just gave me this idiotic crooked grin that always managed to melt my frozen heart and said, "So where'd the pleasantness go?"

I really did hate him sometimes.

/

"So you're willing to buy me any pair of scissors in this store?" I asked in wonder, glancing around the scissor shop. They had an insane number of scissors, decorating the walls, stored in bins, hanging on shelves – heck, they even had scissors hanging from the scissors, much to my delight.

"As long as they're less than $100 dollars," Andre amended, glancing warily at the price tag on a pair of antique, slightly rusty scissors.

"I don't need antique scissors," I muttered, playing with a pair that had shiny black handles. "They just need to have good _sciss_ and make a good sound when I use them. Oh, not to mention they have to make quality cuts."

Tori and Andre glanced warily at each other. "And how are you going to test that?"

"Oh, I guess we'll see," I said ominously, secretly enjoying the looks of terror on their face. But then Beck ran a hand through his hair and stepped up, handing me a piece of paper.

Surprised, I glanced up at him. Back when we were _dating_, Beck used to go scissor shopping with me, and he'd always bring paper for me to cut up to test my scissors. I had no idea that he had even known about this beforehand (I suppose I'd assumed that he'd been dragged here by Tori and Andre), but no, it seemed he'd thought about all of this before. With a slight smile, I took the paper. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Good luck finding some scissors. Those ones over there look like they've really got sciss."

I glanced over to where he was looking, and sure enough, there was a pretty decent pair of scissors hanging there. Raising an eyebrow, I told him, "Looks like you've got decent taste in scissors, Oliver. Must say I'm surprised."

"You taught me well," he mumbled with a slight smile, and then he walked away.

/

Of course, after they bought the scissors for me, everyone refused to go near me for a while, probably because I sliced up the whole piece of paper that Beck had given me into tiny little scraps, then turned to them and asked "Who's next?" But I digress.

They decided to take me to Nozu for dinner, since apparently Nozu had become like, our thing now. Even though I don't actually like sushi all that much and the owner hates me. But you know, whatever floats their boats.

"I swear," I muttered as they pushed me in the door, babbling about my birthday, "if they hear you talking about my birthday and sing to me, then I'm murdering all of you with my new scissors."

"I'll take that risk." Tori laughed. "Let's go find a table."

We all crowded into a table that was probably meant for four people, and I was uncomfortably squished in between Cat, who was babbling on about the origin of the word 'sushi', and Beck. I tried not to think about how awkward this was. No, this was not weird at all…

"Um, Jade?" Beck said quietly. "You're kinda, um… could you move over a bit, please?"

And now it was awkward again.

"I'm gonna get the steak," Andre burst out. When we all stared at him, he turned all red. "Um, I meant the sushi."

So then we all started discussing what we were ordering, at least until the waitress came over and took all of our orders. Of course, Cat managed to tell her that it was my birthday, much to my chagrin, and the waitress promised that I'd get a 'special birthday song'. Joy of all joys.

"So, Jade, how's your birthday been so far?" Tori asked.

"Decent," I said in a deadpan tone, because of course Jade West is never happy.

"That's good for her." Beck chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes at him, then I lowered my voice a little bit. "Look, you're never to repeat this to anyone, because I am _not_ going soft, but why are you guys doing this for me? I thought you thought I was like, horrible or something. You know, all dark and horribly creepy."

"You are," Andre said with a shrug. "But you're still our friend and we want you to be happy."

"Yeah," Beck agreed. "And Jade, even if we broke up, I still care about you… a lot." He smiled over at me, and I felt my heart skip a beat or something creepy like that. Sometimes I seriously hate him.

"Could you be more obvious?" Tori groaned. When we all stared at her, Tori just shrugged. "I was, um, talking about that painting of a cactus on the wall. It's obviously a horse masquerading as a cactus."

No one questioned her, probably because no one wanted to know what went on in her messed up little fluffy head.

"Well, thanks," I told them at last. "And you'd best treasure that, because that's one of the only times I will ever say that _to anyone_."

"You're welcome, Jade," Cat informed me with a giggle, patting my arm. "I'm glad you like it!"

And then, before I could say anything else, our food arrived. My sushi wasn't actually horrible, and I took pleasure in discovering that there were actually dead animals in the sushi place. But after that, the insanely weird waitress came out and made the whole restaurant sing Happy Birthday to me. I swear, if it hadn't been my birthday, Cat would be in her grave right now.

I was all set to get up and leave, but then Robbie chirped up with, "Hey, Jade, don't leave yet. We've got you some presents."

I didn't get it at all, I thought with wonder as I sat back down. They bought me _presents_? In past years, Beck had been the only one to get me anything, and I'd thought… I had thought that all of that was over now. I suppose not. My mind was blown or whatever you call it as Robbie shyly pushed a wrapped present toward me.

"If this is underwear, I'm not opening it," I told him seriously.

"Jade!" Robbie went scarlet. "It's not. Just open it."

So I did, and it turned out to be a book, and one that I'd been wanting to read at that. A small smile spread across my face. "Thanks, Shapiro."

Next was Cat's gift. She had, in typical Cat fashion, gotten me a huge bag of cotton candy and a bracelet with a heart charm dangling off of it. I thanked her for it, although I knew I'd probably not wear the bracelet. It was the thought that counted.

Then there was Andre, who gave me a nice wallet thing. Tori ended up giving me a basket of candy and bathroom stuff, which was sort of creepy but nice at the same time, since I'd been needing some more hair stuff and I do _love_ candy. "Thanks, Vega," I said, giving her one of my infamous terrifying faces. She just gulped, which made me laugh more.

Beck just stood there, looking awkward, and at first I assumed that he didn't have anything to give me. It was expected, after all; we were fresh out of a breakup. But once the others started to drift off, he whispered to me, "I'll stay after. I have something for you that's a bit personal."

"Personal?" I mouthed back, but he just shrugged.

Once they were all gone, Beck drew a package out from behind his back. "For you," he told me, blushing slightly. I ripped it open at once, curiosity overtaking me, and I found that there was a photo album inside. Confused, I whipped it open to find pictures of me… and him. Suddenly, I understood why he'd wanted to wait.

"I… wow," was all I could get out, and even with that my voice cracked slightly.

"I just wanted you to remember," Beck told me, biting down on his lip. "I know I do."

"I don't think I'll ever be able to forget," I informed him with a hollow laugh.

With a small smile, he handed me a tiny box. "This is for you, too." I opened it to find a pair of scissor earrings, the pair I'd been eyeing months ago, the last time we'd gone shopping as a couple. With a frown, I shook my head. It was amazing how he remembered chiz like this.

He opened his arms, and I fell into them automatically, resting my head on his chest. It was odd, considering the fact that we weren't even a couple, not anymore, but I found my resistance wavering more and more the longer I stayed there. I didn't want to move, didn't want to let go. And it was then that I wondered how we'd ever let go.

Beck drew back, smiling slightly at me. "Happy birthday, Jade."

/

**A/N: this is bad but I love the friendship between all of them and jade and also I love beck/jade and I felt sad so I wrote this and I'm sorry but yeah this is a thing that happened.**

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY JADE WEST I LOVE YOU BABY (a bit late but okay anyway) ;)**


End file.
